"Wig it up" for charity

Friday 11 April 2014

You're being encouraged to join hospital staff and go to work today wearing a wig and donate £1 to help support the 400 or so Islanders who’ll get diagnosed with cancer and need to have chemo this year.

Local charity Friends of Jersey Oncology have organized the ‘Get your Mojo on for FOJO day’ so that they can give cancer patients a special pack to help make losing their hair and the other side-effects of treatment more bearable.

The ‘chemo hug packs’ are part of their ‘Help Us Hold their Hand Campaign’ and cost about £70 each. The bags are full of things to give patients a little bit of comfort and support – things the States don’t provide for cancer sufferers.

Specialist Oncology Nurse Kerry Burnett set up the charity in 2012 because of the lack of resources in the Oncology department.  But thanks to the charity - it now has a quiet room where people can go when they’ve just been given bad news.

Miss Burnett said she hopes to be able to start handing out the kits to patients next month when they are having their pre-chemo chat. She said: “They will be of huge benefit to patients. We just want to make it a little bit easier. It’ll take away a bit of the worry when people have just been given the news that they have cancer.”

The ‘chemo hug packs’ contain:

• Thermometers to check for signs of infection;

• Eye masks to help patients sleep and rest;

• Toothbrushes and mouthwashes to prevent ulcers;

• Hand cream, lip salves and nail polish to help skin and nails blackening from the drugs;

• Warm socks and gloves to help with sensitivity to the cold;Hats and scarves to help deal with hair loss;

• Pill packs to help patients remember all the drugs they need to take;

• Ginger pastels to help stop people feeling sick;

• Mints to stimulate saliva glands’

• Massage and relaxation vouchers to help people manage the stress of having cancer.

A five-aside football tournament is being organised next month to raise more money for the charity.